Day 1 - Lord's Day - Sunday | Daily Devotions | The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2025-2026 |
February 15
Lesson 11 (KJV)
The Lord’s Day
Devotional Reading: Psalm 118:19–24
Background Scripture: Genesis 2:2–3; Matthew 12:1–14; 28:1–10
Exodus 20:8–11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Romans 14:4–6
4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be held up: for God can make him stand.
5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Revelation 1:10
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
Key Text
In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.—Exodus 20:11
Enduring Beliefs of the Church
Unit 3: The Church and Its Teachings
Lessons 9–13
Lesson Aims
After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to:
1. Summarize Exodus 20:8–11.
2. Compare and contrast the Old Testament command to honor the Sabbath with the practices of worship in the early church.
3. List ways to bring rest and worship together in the upcoming week.
Lesson Outline
Introduction
A. The Great Birthday Debate
B. Lesson Context
I. The Sabbath Day (Exodus 20:8–11)
A. Keep It Holy (v. 8)
B. Not for Labor (vv. 9–10)
C. Created by God (v. 11)
Resting Well
II. Honoring Special Days (Romans 14:4–6)
A. No Basis to Judge (v. 4)
B. Needs Reflection (v. 5)
C. Always for the Lord (v. 6)
Not How, but Why
III. The Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10)
Conclusion
A. King of Creation, Lord of Every Day
B. Prayer
C. Thought to Remember
How to Say It
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Decalogue |
Dek-uh-log. |
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Deuteronomy |
Due-ter-ahn-uh-me. |
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Galatians |
Guh-lay-shunz. |
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Gentiles |
Jen-tiles. |
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Leviticus |
Leh-vit-ih-kus. |
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Patmos |
Pat-muss. |
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Sinai |
Sigh-nye or Sigh-nay-eye. |
Introduction
A. The Great Birthday Debate
I have never liked birthday celebrations. I can’t keep track of dates; I can’t find the right words for a card; and I don’t even like cake.
But when I got married, I learned that my opinion was not popular—not by a long shot. I think I knew that beforehand, but my wife would never let me impose my anti-birthday views on others. In her family, birthdays were a time when a person felt valued, when other priorities could be postponed.
You can probably guess which side my kids chose in the “great birthday debate.” I have to admit, it gives me pause to see our birthday traditions evolve each year. I witness that the simple acts of remembering and doing something change my son or daughter’s perspective. They wake with abundant joy to face a day of attention, and I think they’ve started to chip away at my indifference. I suppose we could honor one another on any day, but it sure helps when it’s on the calendar.
B. Lesson Context
The giving of the Sinai covenant comes at a key point in Israel's history. The Ten Commandments or Decalogue (which means “ten words”) convey wisdom from God. By following these commands, the Israelites were invited to live at peace with one another and with the God who had just freed them from servitude in Egypt (Exodus 19:4–6).
The fourth of these commandments, Sabbath, describes a practice of refraining from work on the final day of each week. It has no precise equivalent in other ancient Near Eastern cultures. The distinctiveness of Sabbath practice became especially apparent when inhabitants of Judah went into exile and later returned to the land after it had been repopulated with other groups (sixth century BC). Alongside infant circumcision (Leviticus 12:3) and restrictive food laws (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14), the Sabbath became a mark of Jewish identity in the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods, as well as in the centuries before the birth of Jesus.
But as Christianity, which began as a Jewish movement, grew to include many Gentiles, a question the earliest churches had to answer was: When shall we meet? Christian “voluntary associations,” as the Romans saw them, chose to meet before dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday rather than Saturday). Outsiders noticed Christians' habit of gathering on Sunday mornings. For instance, Pliny the Younger—a second-century Roman official seeking to root out Christians in his region—reports to the emperor Trajan that Christians gather before dawn on a particular day to sing hymns to Christ.
I. The Sabbath Day
(Exodus 20:8–11)
A. Keep It Holy (v. 8)
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What Do You Think? In what ways do you set aside a day of the week for sacred use and worship? Digging Deeper What challenges do you face when doing so? What barriers keep you from remembering and setting aside a day? |
B. Not for Labor (vv. 9–10)
C. Created by God (v. 11)
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What Do You Think? How might God’s decision to rest after His act of creation affect your understanding of a weekly day of rest? Digging Deeper Compare Deuteronomy 5:15; how does this verse contribute to your understanding? |
II. Honoring Special Days
(Romans 14:4–6)
A. No Basis to Judge (v. 4)
B. Needs Reflection (v. 5)
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What Do You Think? How can we determine which beliefs are essential (no room for compromise) and which are nonessential? Digging Deeper How does this quote inform your approach: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity”? |
C. Always for the Lord (v. 6)
III. The Lord’s Day
(Revelation 1:10)
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What Do You Think? In what ways do your congregation’s Lord’s Day services honor God as Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Digging Deeper How do the service’s various practices lead you into a deeper worship of God? |
Conclusion
A. King of Creation, Lord of Every Day
What does the Sabbath mean for Christians today? Answers to this question have needlessly divided congregations and families who seek to devote time and space to God. A consistent thread runs from the gift of the Sabbath to the discernment of the early churches to the earliest Christians who designate Sunday for celebratory songs: God is king of creation, and Christ the Lord is worthy of praise.
For those who worship the Creator in reverent submission, the fitting response is to place God at the center of all life, to orient everything else around a mission to serve the king. Sabbath honors the rhythms of God’s productive creation, even as God’s people join Him in productive work on days that are not Sabbath. According to Paul, we now have the freedom to act with confidence, as Christ’s own servants. Perhaps we may find that a particular day should be reserved for prayer, and we clear space for God by setting aside all distractions. Perhaps, like the earliest Christians, we find that rising early to gather on Sunday will make us peculiar.
But whatever our king expects of us, our duty is not to go about asserting ourselves as the final judge. We can anticipate that, in the splendor of God’s kingdom, there are servants of Christ whose “orders from the king” differ from ours. If we seek peace together, as Paul teaches, we shall communicate best through humble actions, the kindnesses that point back to Christ as Lord of our lives.
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What Do You Think? How will you seek peace with believers who may have different interpretations of the significance of the Sabbath? Digging Deeper In what ways has this lesson informed your interpretation of God’s gifts of rest and worship? |
B. Prayer
Lord, You order time and space. We worship You as Lord of our lives. Show us how to devote our time to Your kingdom’s purposes in both work and rest. Amen.
C. Thought to Remember
All our time should be devoted to God.
Involvement Learning
Enhance your lesson with KJV Bible Student (from your curriculum supplier) and the reproducible activity page (at www.standardlesson.com or in the back of the KJV Standard Lesson Commentary Deluxe Edition).
Jason Hitchcock, Nadia Vermaak, and Mark A. Taylor, “The Lord’s Day,” in The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2025–2026, ed. Taylor Z. Stamps et al., vol. 73, The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary (Colorado Springs, CO: Standard Publishing, 2026), 207–208.
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